THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The European Union’s police agency is calling for better awareness and tougher, targeted legislation to tackle cybercrime in the wake of devastating malware and ransomware attacks in recent months.

Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright says events such as the global “WannaCry” attack in May have “taken the threat from cybercrime to another level.”

Wainwright was speaking Wednesday as Europol released its 2017 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment highlighting trends in cybercrime and ways of tackling them.

He said that while law enforcement authorities have succeeded in disrupting major online crime syndicates, “the collective response is still not good enough” and “people and companies everywhere must do more to better protect themselves.”

WannaCry malware scrambled data at hospitals, factories, government agencies, banks and other businesses around the world.